Podcast recordings
Introduction
What will family structures look like in the future? In The UK and other countries in the global north, birth rates are declining, and the meanings of ‘family’ are more diverse than ever; members of a family might include stepchildren, neighbours, friends, and even pets. What’s more, we’re facing some complex global challenges: economic crises, and social and environmental pressures, which can make our life and family plans feel even more uncertain.
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Content
In this podcast series, Liliana and Lisa, two sociology researchers at the University of Edinburgh, talk to both academics and activists about their insights on personal relationships in the contemporary world, in which the shadows of climate change, economic instability and rising inequality warrant us to contemplate how intimate life could, (or even, should!) look in the future.
Introduction to the Future Intimacies podcast series
Listen to the Introduction on SoundCloud
Episode 1: Get to know the leader of NETREP
Anna-Maija, leader of NETREP talks about the underpinning of NETREP, what it is like to construct an international research team, and promising linkages between the project with other disciplines.
Listen to Episode 1 on SoundCloud.
Episode 2: Care, family and kinship with Emily Kenway
Listen to Episode 2 on SoundCloud
Episode 3: A whistle-stop tour of feminist perspectives on modern life with Poppy Gerrard-Abbott
This episode's guest is Poppy Gerrard-Abbott, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. A leading feminist scholar and activist, Poppy takes us on a whistle-stop tour through a range of issues concerning women, from motherhood, progressive and regressive online worlds, and unseen gendered labour, to the early feminisation of children, and the collision of tradition and modernity.
Listen to Episode 3 on SoundCloud
Episode 4: With Chuck Stokes
This episode's guest is Chuck Stokes, senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at Samford University. Chuck and Liliana discuss modern dating, the risks of commodifying relationships in dating apps, social isolation, and how global or societal uncertainties can affect short vs long-term commitment.
Listen to Episode 4 on SoundCloud
Episode 5: Cultural expectations, continuity and change in family formation in Nigeria, with Dr. Ayomide Oluseye
In this episode we redirect our lens on intimate futures from the global north context to that of Nigeria. Dr. Ayomide Oluseye from the Open University discusses her research on young people from the Yoruba tribe, sharing her insights on tradition, cultural expectations, and continuity and change in family formation. Comparing these findings to ours of the UK context, Ayo discusses how changing family patterns and social norms are connected to wider processes of global change.